Smartphones

There’s no doubt that Google organized a big community really fast with its Google+ social network, but a former Engineering Director at Google is denouncing the service as a means to an end: creating a tool to gather as much information as possible on users for the purpose of capturing more dollars from its advertisers. Sounds very similar to Mobile service providers creating locked in long term contracts that siphon more and mo0re money from users.

Spencer Tipping, a programmer who left Google about a month ago, authored a blog post describing the pros and cons of the Google culture. His post delves into the technological environment and the corporate culture at the company. He called Google+ a big corporate culture con game.

As Tipping put it, “I think Google+ is an effort that does not deserve the engineering minds at Google. This is mostly a personal bias. I see Google as solving legitimately difficult technological problems, not doing stupid things like cloning Facebook. Google, in my opinion, lost sight of what was important when they went down this rabbit hole.”

Tipping admitted that he disagreed with what he called Google’s “ubiquitous political emphasis on Google+ that sometimes compromised other engineering efforts.”

Tipping might be carrying some baggage on the subject of Google+, but the pros in his blog post outweighed the cons. He also said he left the company “mostly because I wanted to take the time to pursue stuff closer to my interests.”

As Brad Duea, T-Mobile’s senior vice president of product management, stated, “We have a tremendous history of working with Samsung to bring cutting-edge devices to market, and we know our customers are excited to get their hands on the Galaxy S3,” said “As we continue to aggressively compete, this device is yet another example of how T-Mobile delivers amazing devices and 4G experiences to our customers.”

Sprint will offer two versions of the Galaxy S3: a 16GB model priced at $199.99 and a 32GB version for $249.99 (both require a two-year contract.) Sprint also announced that they will be the only U.S. carrier with a pre-loaded Google Wallet, an app that uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to ensure the safety of purchases at more than 100,000 participating retailers. .

Fared Adib, vice president of product development at Sprint said, “Sprint and Samsung take another leap forward together in bringing our customers the best in mobile technology with Galaxy S3 on the Sprint 4G LTE network. Sprint is the only U.S. carrier to offer this device with the simplicity of unlimited data plans. Our customers will appreciate being able to use the robust features and capabilities of this device without worrying about data caps, throttling or silly overage charges.”

Verizon Wireless announced it will begin taking preorders for the Samsung Galaxy S3 starting June 6th at 7 a.m. EST. Verizon is not being specific about their launch date for the device. As it states in the company press release, the device “will be available in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online in the coming weeks.”

Samsung has done well with its Galaxy series, and it has another round of numbers to confirm it. With more than 50 million Android phones sold all over the world, Samsung has reason to gloat. They’ve racked up some impressive sales numbers with just a few well-designed and well-received devices.

The Galaxy line has created a dynasty to rival the royal Apple family. Samsung Galaxy S sales hit 24 million in two years. Then the Galaxy S II outperformed its ancestor with 28 million sales in 13 months, making it Samsung’s fastest selling device ever. Now add 8 million more sales since late February and there’s no sign of S II’s momentum slowing. Well maybe its progeny Galaxy S3 will have something to say about that. It’s already racked up 9 million pre-orders.

Samsung Galaxy Note had a nice showing, too. In a world where you’re either a tablet or you’re a smartphone, this hybrid carved out a 7 million-unit niche since its debut in October 2011.

The statistics released didn’t cover the entire Galaxy family. It would be nice to see how the poorer relations, Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Y, fared. The next couple of months are going to be very exciting for everything Samsung.

Samsung just cranked up the level of excitement over the Samsung Galaxy S3 to a whole new level. They’ve finally, officially announced that their new flagship phone will be available in June from all the major U.S. carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular.

Each carrier will be releasing their pricing in the coming weeks, and check the websites for pre-order plans. The phone will probably start at $199 (with contract) and may hit the stores as early as June 20th.

The device weighs in at 133 grams and is 0.1mm thicker than the Samsung Galaxy S II, but due to its lack of the back chin, thickness is a lot more uniform. Moreover, its size (136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm), the device offers an excellent grip and is rather pocket friendly. Protect your Galaxy S3 form the hustle and bustle of everyday life with the latest Samsung Galaxy S3 accessories.

The phone also has two unique features. The Galaxy S3 will run S Voice, which is a voice assistant reminiscent of the iPhone4S - Siri app, as well as a feature called Smart Stay, which optimizes the phone's settings by detecting whether a user is looking at it.

The Galaxy S3 will be available in 16GB and 32GB versions but also can be expanded with additional memory cards. It will be available in two colors, marble white and pebble blue.

One surprise in the announcement: the U.S. version of the Galaxy S3 won’t include the same quad core processor as the international phone. But Samsung explained the change: “The dual-core processor offers speed and performance comparable to leading quad-core processors without sacrificing valuable battery life.” The dual core Snapdragon S4 processor with integrated modem will allow the device to operate on the fastest LTE and HSPA+ 42 networks.

As Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Telecommunications America, pronounced it: “The U.S. launch of the Galaxy S3 is the most anticipated launch of the year. As promised, we are delivering the ‘next big thing’ for U.S. customers and across all major carriers. Galaxy S3 introduces new technological innovation and takes sharing to the next level.”

Google’s latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich distribution numbers show its user base has grown by 2.9% since April, to a total of 7.1% - a 40% increase in one month.

Google publishes its monthly Android distribution figures on its developer website. While Gingerbread still owns the show with almost 65% of devices using this platform, Ice Cream Sandwich is showing steady growth. This is probably due to aftermarket ICS updates for some phones and the launch of Android 4.0 devices like the HTC One X, HTC One S, HTC One V. The percentage is only going to grow.

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Android 4.0’s market share at this point could also been seen as a disappointment. By now, ICS should have started to eat away at Gingerbread’s market domination. Blame it on device manufacturers and cell carriers for dragging their feet on updating older phones and not installing it on new phones once it was released.

In some cases, the neglect is understandable. There are cheaper smartphones and older models still selling as new that don’t have the hardware to run ICS. Those low-end Android devices still account for the majority of the Android user base, and Gingerbread is still a great OS. It looks like Android 4.0 distribution will continue to grow but not at the expense of Gingerbread.

Verizon has finally given the official word that their testing of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is complete, and the Android 4.0.4 update (build IMM76K) is good to go. We’re still waiting for Verizon to get the update to customers, but their sharing of the news means we’ll have it very soon.

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I’m glad that Verizon finally got this update approved, but Galaxy Nexus owners should expect more of the same with future updates. Google will announce their Android 4.1 upgrade next month and it will hit the GSM Galaxy Nexus shortly, and then Verizon subscribers with the CDMA/LTE Galaxy Nexus will be left waiting for months before Verizon approves it.

This build was first leaked in early May and appeared on Google’s servers again just last week. If you already flashed this, you have the same version that is going out to all customers.

Just a few weeks ago, we heard that Apple would probably be replacing Google Maps with its own version. For a long time, Apple has been working on their own in-house 3D-equipped program, and trying to get it ready for the upcoming iOS 6. Now, the street has pictures to prove they might be close to getting it done.

We obtained blurry photos has that supposedly show Apple's new iOS 6 Maps application running on an iDevice. (However, the pictures are such poor quality that they could also just be super close-ups of a Google Images screen shot.

Here are some of the details we’re hearing about the new app:

It features a refreshed user interface including a brand new navigation bar.

It may have a silver colored theme in iOS 6 like on the iPad.

The iPhone version of Maps will have a floating locate me button in the bottom left corner. To access 3D mode, peel back the lower right corner of Maps (just like the current version) and enable 3D mode. Switch in and out of 3D mode by tapping a 3D icon in the lower left corner.

Since 2009, Apple has acquired companies that could help them put together their own maps app including Google Maps' competitor Placebase, mapping company Poly9, and C3 Technologies, that specializes in 3D mapping.

Apple has already made moves away from Google Maps. In March, they started using OpenStreetMap, an open mapping service, with its iOS iPhoto app in place of Google Maps (after Google began charging businesses for access to its digital mapping services). Maybe that’s what they’re building upon. The BGR photos allegedly showing Apple's iOS 6 Maps app look a lot like those provided by OpenStreetMap.

Here’s hoping Apple will give us a lot more information on its plans at the 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference, which starts on Monday, June 11.

It looks like Facebook is ready to expand its product offerings with something completely different – a smartphone. Facebook has reportedly hired a group of former Apple engineers to try again to build a Facebook-brand smartphone.

The New York Times reports that the ex-Apple employees consist of former hardware and software engineers who worked on the iPhone 4S and one engineer who worked on the New iPad/ iPad 3.

Why are Mark and his publicly-traded company working on a Facebook phone again? An anonymous source inside Facebook apparently told this to the Times, “Mark is worried that if he doesn’t create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms.”

The Facebook smartphone rumor mill had been quite for some time, and a study conducted earlier this year found that most consumers wouldn’t be interested in a Facebook smartphone anyway. The previous rumor that Facebook was close to having its own phone apparently was greatly exaggerated.

The closest Facebook got to its own smartphone the last time was when HTC launched a pair of low-end smartphones with dedicated Facebook sharing buttons, but nothing near a Facebook-branded device.